Whenever you try to run an organization, you will inevitably run into challenges. Luckily, homeschoolers from around the country have written articles and often post on email lists to help you figure our your next move.
How and where do you find meeting space? How do you get help as your organization grows beyond your ability to run it all by yourself? What do you do if your group's attendance falls? Explore answers to these questions and also take a look at how to avoid burnout, how to use consensus decision-making, dealing with difficult volunteer situations, and how to handle various kinds of conflict in your group.
Lost Without Space?
by Mary May
"While the thought of hunting up space can be intimidating at first, it doesn't have to be a torturous experience. Space for meetings and activities can be found in the most unexpected places sometimes. You just have to know where to look."
Finding Help as Your Support Group Grows
by Carol Moxley
Whether the intent is for the group to remain informal, with you at the helm and a crew of helpers available to take on specific duties, or whether you expect the group to grow into a formal entity with elected officers and by-laws, you're not going to be able to do it all yourself forever.
The Evolution of a Support Group
by N. S. Gill
". . . [R]ather than longevity as the measure of a support group's success our standard should be the group's ability to evolve." This article addresses sparse attendance and other issues homeschool support groups can face.
Helping New Homeschoolers: A Simpler Approach
by Carol Moxley
"How does one enjoy helping acclimate the new homeschooler while still preserving one's sanity?" This article offers a few time and energy-saving tips for busy support group leaders and volunteers to consider.
Consensus
by Dorothy Werner
"Most well-functioning groups actually use consensus informally most of the time." But how does consensus work? Why does it work? And what responsibilities do members have when working towards consensus?
When a Support Group Splinters
by Marie Hopper
"We all come into groups looking for different things and with different expectations. We naturally gravitate to others that "click" for us or for our children. As a result, sometimes, groups split or splinter. This is where my story comes in."
Homeschool Leadership: Balance vs. Burnout
by Mary May
"Most people who have spent any great amount of time and energy at a task have felt the symptoms of burnout at one time or another. These symptoms, while routinely disruptive, affect people in different ways . . . Most people see feeling burnt-out as a reaction to attempting to do too much at one time. As adept as homeschool group leaders, co-op coordinators, and activity leaders are at juggling, keeping all of those balls in the air at once can be a challenge."
Addressing Interpersonal Conflict
Conflict resolution help from the Free Management Library.
Conflict Management in Groups
Collections of article links assembled by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, designed to help managers of non-profit and for-profit organizations.